Abigail"s fears were entirely justified. Within an hour Rome"s streets were thronged with furious citizens demanding Hebrew blood for the loss of the eagle. Touched by Caesar"s own hand, the golden aquila was the symbol of a legion"s luck. Better every man should fall than let their eagle be lost, and woe to any nation that dared take one.
In his father"s home on the Quirinal, Titus Flavius Sabinus received the same urgent summons as Corbulo. Draped in his toga praetexta with its broad purple stripe along the edge, he joined his elderly father on the walk to the Forum, then ascended another of Rome"s fabled seven hills, the Mons Capitolinus, towards the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.
As they climbed the marble steps to the Capitol, Old Sabinus groused. “Why couldn"t that fool Bolanus
